Ebay book signing

While musing over various book promotion ideas I started thinking about book signings. There are so many people selling books on auction sites like Ebay I wondered if anyone had ever offered personally signed copies of their books on Ebay?
The Idea being you list your book as a genuine signed by the author copy.
Announce it before hand by press release or twitter or whatever means at your disposal. Then on the day of your choice maybe one of Ebay's cheap listing days post your book for sale.

Purchasers are offered the choice of what they want written eg " To Mary or Fred" to make it more personal and unique.

What do you think??

I thought about it, but never got around to doing it. Plus I have been a bit tentative about taking that step of being a seller on eBay.

I have had autographed copies of my book, A Myth in Action, offered on ebay, not by me, but by individuals who bought them from me at signings. I was curious, the first time I signed at an AM convention, why several people insisted that they wanted no more than my name and a date. I later learned that those books immediately became memorabilia for Audie Murphy collectors.

Ann

I offered signed copies of my book, but got no takers because the crowd there wants to buy books for a few pennies. I had better luck selling my stuff on Amazon because I could match the prices of the wholesalers; on eBay, I wasn't willing to pay $10 for a copy and sell it for 50 cents--which is the kind of deal most people seemed to expect.

Malcolm

Ouch 50 cents, Malcom your worth more than that.
I suppose my problem here is being an unknown.
I have to get myself known to attract an audience.
Maybe Ebay is a good idea if people know you and you already have an audience ( apart from Family and friends).

Where I live we have a local town market every Wednesday and Saturday. People put up stands on the street and sell there goods out in the open. You often get bargains from market stalls. There are a few book sellers who sell this way. I had thought about approaching them to set up a book signing and getting the local press involved. Because it's an unusual occurance they may come. It's also good publicity for the book seller.

I guess that's why J K R put her first run of Harry Potter into schools, to create an audience.

It would be easier if I had millions of dollars to throw at publicity.

We have a town market as well. It was fun being there and, the town being small, I saw lots of people I knew. Sold a few books, too. I think the exposure is good once and a while because more often than not, I'm sitting here in my den with a lot of solitude and a few cats. Getting out reminds others that I'm more than a figment of their imaginations.

The best exposure I got was from a blogging community where, over time, everyone got to know each other. Our posts and our comments were sort of like folks gabbing over the back yard fence. More people from this community bought my book over a period of time than any other one source. Unfortunately, the community no longer exists. But I keep looking for similar experiences.

Malcolm